Love at first fight!
by ReineMarieAntoinette
Summary: Cora and Robert love each other very much, but they are almost opposite in every way. A series of one-shots with a lot of humor, romance, teasing, bickering and the delightful company of a grumpy Robert and of Cora who rolls her eyes at him.
1. My Mrs President

Robert was sitting in the library. He had moved from his desk to the big red couch in front of the hearth, discarding his forgotten paperwork after a failed attempt to focus on it. He wasn't really distracted, but he felt slightly disturbed by a feeble hint of annoyance. He knew deep down why he felt like this, but the sole idea of admitting the reason for being upset had the only effect to make him feel worse.

It was the end of fall; he could see from the big windows the beauty of the light brown lawn spreading around his estate and filling the room with a warm and cosy atmosphere. Autumn used to be the most busy time of the year in his long life as the Earl of Grantham. The tennants and the farmers needed instruction and support for the big preparation before the long english winter and Robert has always been keen on visiting all the cottages and farms to be sure that he would have been able to provide everything that his people needed. He has always been so proud to be the polar star of the county, the man full of answers, the caring lord, the good and merciful Earl, looked up by everybody.

Today though, finding himself alone in the library with no company apart from his novel and a snoring Tiaa sleeping on the rug, he felt old and useless.

Mary was officially the lady of the day at Downton, working brilliantly in order to assure the good future of the estate. Edith was the marchioness of Brancaster castle, doing a great job in supporting and guiding her novel spouse in his new mission as brand new english nobleman. His two sons in law were settling their new modern activity in the motor world and then there was her, the woman who has been the inevitable end of all his thoughts for the past 36 years: Cora.

He hated to admit that,but he thought wistfully at the times when she was just his wife, the Countess of Grantham, the perfect hostess whose name was always interwoven with his own. In 1926 infact his dearest one wasn't just the mistress of the house, the mother or the grandmother but also the beloved new president of Downton Hospital, the guide for the doctors and the investors and the nice lady ready to meet the people of the county and to inform them enthusiastically about the new plans of the new medical organization between Downton and York.

Robert was sure she was enjoying her new role and he had witnessed himself how good and natural Cora was in her job, but nevertheless he couldn't help himself by thinking about what they could have had at this point, if she wasn't busy all the time.

At 56 years old Robert Crawley would have loved to have some free time to enjoy his life with his wife, travelling again as they used to do before the girls were born or just relaxing at home, spending time playing with their beautiful grandchildren and retiring for some wild weekends in London, dining out and dancing in fancy places.

Cora though, who at 54 looked more modern and beautiful than ever, was as always so much modern than him, and had happily embraced a new adventure, refusing to give up everything she was in order to stay at home to be just "Mama" or "Granny".

Robert woke up from his daydreaming and looked at his pocket watch again. Half past six. It was far past tea time and he was getting impatient. Wasn't Cora's meeting supposed to end at half past three? She had to go to York in the morning, but has declined his offer to drive her there and now the protective husband in him regretted to not have insisted.

Might she have lost the train? Did she meet someone who bothered her along the way? Has she been robbed? Hurt?Kidnapped?

He couldn't finish his long list of tragical possibilities when he heard Tiaa making a sound of excitement,before leaving her place in front of the fireplace to run happily towards the door.

Few minutes later Cora was in the library making her presence clear by the quick clicking of her heels on the wooden floor.

Robert stiffened immediately on the couch, taking hurriedly the book from the pillow next to him and pretending innocently to have been completely focused on his reading for the whole time. Cora saw him with the corner of her eyes and stopped behind him coughing slightly.

"Hello darling" she said softly, sitting on the couch in front of her husband.

Robert raised his eyes for less then a millisecond, mumbling a grumpy "Hello" without loosing interest in his novel.

Cora smiled, knowing exactly why he was behaving like this and after a few minutes she left her place on the couch to go sitting next to him.

"Sorry if I came home that late" she added, running her hand in Robert's hair.

He grunted and finally put his book away without really looking in Cora's eyes. "Oh have you been late? I have been so busy that I haven't got the slightest idea about what time is it"

Cora could barely contain a small laugh before cupping her husband's cheek in her hand, turning his face to make him look at her.

And it was then that Robert really noticed her, widening his eyes at the sight before him.

Cora's hair was shorter and neatly arranged in soft waves around her face. Instead of being tied in an intricated hairstyle, her dark curls were gently resting on her left shoulder, while on the right side of her face they were combed tightly, revealing her long and elegant neck and a pendent earring of diamonds and pearls.

Even her make up was different in some ways. Her lips were coloured with a dark mauve lipstick, while her blue eyes looked more deep than usual because of a black line following her upper eyelid.

The last thing that Robert noticed was her dress. Not that he was an expert in women's fashion, but he was quite sure that the item she was wearing wasn't something she has ever dared wearing before.

It was one of those modern cocktail dresses with a cream colour on the base and some lilac flowers embroidered on the left side of the bust and of the wide skirt full of plaits. It has a thin belt tied at her waist, which accentuated Cora's pretty figure, just the smallest hint of two short sleeves and a squared necklace.

Robert looked at her with an interrogative expression, which showed both confusion and irritation.

Cora took his hand in hers and smiled again at him.

" Have you lost your tongue?"

Robert lifted himself from the couch as if it was burning with flames. "No, but you have surely lost your mind!"

"Why ever are you saying that to me, now?" Cora asked raising her eyebrows.

"Oh don't play naïve with me now, Mrs. President! You left me this morning telling me you would have had a long day of work ahead and now you come back home looking just like an actress from the pictures!"

Cora stood up and touched her hair lightly. "Like an actress? Oh golly! Does it mean that you like my new attire?"

Robert lifted his eyes to the ceiling, before looking back at Cora with angered eyes. "It's a quarter to seven, Cora!"

"I know, darling. I am sorry, but I finished early at York and I decided to go to the hairdresser and to visit the new american boutique of Mrs. Seringers!"

Robert huffed soundly "I should have imagined that there was something having to do with America, behind all this!"

Cora put her hands on her hips getting closer to him and stepping further "Oh and what, pray tell, is wrong with America, now?" she asked teasingly. "You have always appreciated it in the past years, didn't you?"

Robert felt a little intimidated by her slight flirtation, so he changed his attitude, turning to a softer tone. "I was worried, Cora! I have spent the whole afternoon worrying about you, you know!"

Cora changed her expression, feigning surprise. "Oh really! Silly me to have believed that you have been busy all the afternoonso that you lost track of the time..." she replied with a jolly grin.

Robert furrowed his brows going back to the couch, falling heavily on it once again and looking at his wife with a red face filled with annoyance.

"At the matter of facts I had a ghastly day here today! First of all Mary decided to go and see the new tennants without me, leaving a message in which she claimed that it was better for me to rest instead of spending the whole morning in a damp and muddy field. Can you imagine? Stay at home and rest? Me? I have been all my life in the muddy fields of this land, for God's sake!"

Cora rolled her eyes and had to do her best to not laugh at his stoic and exaggerate reactions to this.

"Later on I spent a boring luncheon all by myself, because nor even Tom or Henry were here and when the children came downstairs to see me in the afternoon, Sybbie begged me to take part to a tea party for her dolls in the nursery, because 'You shouldn't be busy, since you don't work as daddy or granny'."

At this Cora couldn't help but burst into laugh. "That girl is so deliciously clever and sweet!" she said, coming to sit next to Robert on the couch and taking his hand in hers, ignoring his attempts to retract.

"And tell me, Robert dear, do you know what Sybbie's question means?" she asked softly.

"Of course I know what it means! That even Sybbie, my little love, thinks that I am an old and useless man!" he answered dramatically.

Cora shook her head squeezing her husband's hand once again. "No, you silly! That means that among all of us, your little granddaughter sees you as her favourite person to spend time with. Because she loves you very very much. Just like our daughters, Henry, Tom... and especially me."

Robert indulged in a small smile. "It's so american of you to turn every bad thing into something positive to show off" he joked, looking at Cora.

"And it's so very english of you to complain all the time about every nonsensical little detail" she replied, looking at him like if he was a baby.

"Do you really believe that the fact that your husband has turned in an old grandfather without anything to do apart from napping on the sofa is a nonsensical detail?" Robert asked seriously.

"Oh I am just saying that getting old is not always a bad thing. It's inevitable, Robert. We all are aging, you know? You would notice that if you weren't always as adorably self centered as you are. I am an old granny too. And I love being that!"

"You couldn't possibly be an old granny. Not when you're looking so dashingly young and beautiful." he said, caressing her cheek with the back of his hand, an old habit of his since their courtship.

"Thank you, darling. But you know something? Being an old granddad suits you very much as well!"

"Oh don't joke about it. It's so boring here. You're all busy around the estate while the only occupation of the sixth Earl of Grantham is walking the dog and reading again and again the same books." Robert added looking down at his shoes

"Oh but there are plenty of things to do! I know I am busier than in the past, but haven't you notice how I am dressed now? Do you really think I made all this effort just to stay at home tonight?" she smiled, caressing his forearm.

"What do you mean?"

"It means that tonight we are going out" she announced gladly "The meeting with the investors today was really successful and the things will be surely simpler from now on. I will have more free time and we could spend our time napping and being old grandparents together"

Robert laughed, leaving all his bad mood behind " Surprisingly when you're around I never feel like napping"

"You better not!" She said, coming closer to leave a quick kiss on his lips. "Come on now darling, you need to change!"

"Cora, darling, are you sure? There's no need to go out..."

"Oh Robert, don't be a donk! Can't a wife offer a fancy dinner to her beloved and terribly dashing husband?"

"Oh now it's you taking me out and offering me dinner, Mrs President?" he joked "Should we all bow at your magnificence?"

"Of course I am, sweetheart. I am the one busy working right here, ain't I? And by the way...I have always been the one with the cash since the beginning!" Cora teased, taking him by his hand towards the stairs and looking back at him with a playful glance.

Robert couldn't help to feel lucky. He wasn't too old at the end, if he could still feel that lump in his throat and that flicker in his stomach every time that his Cora was around. He followed her running up the stairs and decided that for tonight the time wouldn't pass, because every time that he looked in his wife's eyes he magically saw the young and bold american of 36 years ago, who, with her freshness and loveliness, took away his heart .


	2. Sleepyhead

The next morning Robert was awakened by the early light of a white sky full of rain.

A thunder made him jump slightly in the bedsheets before he could open his eyes properly.

He grunted with annoyance and rolled over on his back, just to find Cora at his right, sleeping like an angel, with messy curls all over the pillow, the chin pointing elegantly upwards and her rosy lips slightly parted.

How lovely she looked. Robert thought, caressing her figure with his stare and feeling more and more enamoured with all the little details of her revealed in her peaceful sleep.

He noticed the state of the bedsheets on her side, all wrinkled and twisted. He smiled thinking at Cora's old habit to toss and turn during her sleep. Every time that he had looked at her during the nights of the past decades he had never found her once in the same position. She was active even in her rest, while he used to fall asleep straight away on his back and to stay like that just until the early lights of the morning, before turning on his side trying to go on sleeping for a while.

At night Cora was even very clingy. She always liked to be linked with him in some way: holding his hand, resting her chin on his shoulder, wrapping an arm over his waist or even just curling her calf around his leg. Robert felt guilty about it, thinking back at the early months of their marriage: it was as if – even after all this years together – she was still unconsciously afraid that he would have left her alone at some point.

If she knew how much he enjoyed spending the nights with her – he thought - she would probably have left behind this fear, glowing with confidence instead.

Robert's attention now moved on Cora's white shoulder, popping out from the duvet. He could see half-hidden the thin strap of her ivory nightgown, so light and flimsy even if they were at the end of October. She has always preferred to wear light garments in the night. The covers of the bed must always be filled with feathers and wool to be perfectly warm, but her usual choices in matters of night gowns have always been orientated towards thin fabrics and silky and lacy materials.

"I like it to feel nice" she said every time he inquired why she didn't put on a jumper or a shawl or something, since she kept complaining all the time with him about the cold weather of his country. He called it foolish, but deep down Robert secretly loved his wife's discrete vanity in this regard, especially since it was reserved to his eyes only.

Robert moved upwards just a little, trying to regain a sitting position, but a slight move was enough to elicit a small huff of dissatisfaction from Cora.

With her eyes still closed she murmured sleepily "Stay here..." holding tight on his forearm.

Robert laughed lightly "I couldn't even if I wanted to. Not since you pull at my arm like that, you cuddly lady!"

Cora smiled waking up fully "It's so early! We better stay in bed a little longer, Robert." she said with a hoarse voice.

Robert moved to grab the small watch on his bedside table "Actually it's almost 8 o'clock. We better hurry if we don't want our children to think we are missing for good." he said confidently.

Cora snuggled a little bit closer to her husband, rubbing her cheek on his arm like a cat. "Oh come on Robert! Don't be such a spoilsport! The children are adults now, they can manage!"

"Oh they can definitely manage! It's me who can't manage at all whenever you're in charge of the morning routine!" Robert answered teasingly.

Hearing this, Cora raised her head from the pillow, looking at him with a flabbergasted expression. "What do you mean with that?"

Robert smiled happily to have scored a point with his teasing "What I mean, my darling, is that you can be very very lazy!"

Cora opened her mouth in shock, looking at him with threatening eyes: "Lazy? How dare you?" she said, pinching his arm.

"Oh yes indeed. The prim Countess of Grantham, President of Downton Hospital and lady of the mansion is an incorrigible sleepyhead!" Robert repeated cheerfully, sliding back again with his head on the pillow and enveloping his wife in a tender embrace.

"That's just because you snore all the time!" replied Cora, putting both her arms around Robert's neck.

"I do not snore!" cried Robert pretending to be offended.

"Seriously Robert? And if it's not you snoring what are all those noises I hear during the night?" asked his wife with an ironic and perplexed face.

"They are scary roars I make to prevent any burglar to come and harm you. You should thank me!" added Robert proudly, hiding his head in Cora's neck.

A true guffaw escaped Cora's lips, who felt so happy and grateful for those special moments with her darling man that she could cry at the sole thought.

"Oh what a hero!" she exclaimed finally, indulging him in a long and sweet kiss on his lips.

"An hero, you said it well. Even just for keeping up with such a busy wife as you are!" he replied sarcastically, running his hand on Cora's shoulder.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed...I am not busy now!" Said Cora, with an innocent grin mixed with a hint of seduction.

"That's true, my darling. But it's about time for me and you to wake up and start our day. Since I - differently from you - am very industrious and active in the morning." replied Robert, moving as if to leave his laying position.

Cora though had other plans and hooked her leg between Robert's, keeping him in place.

"Come on Robert, darling" she said, running her hands in her husband's hair and peppering his face with small little kisses. "It's so warm and cosy here, while outside it's all cold and windy and stormy. What harm could do staying in here just a bit more?"

"Cora, sweetheart, that's probably the way in which we started conceiving Edith." Robert said, moving slightly away, even if he couldn't help enjoying for a second the delicious sensation of Cora's sweet kisses on his cheeks " and by the way I know that you're trying to win me out like that just because you want to go back to sleep!"

Cora laughed wholeheartedly, leaving a last kiss on Robert's lips before sitting down in the bed.

"You're a mean man!" she concluded jovially.

"A saint!" said back Robert, with a jolly face.

"A lucky man!" replied Cora, feigning aloofness

"I won't dare denying that, my darling. Not now nor never!" asserted Robert, prodding lightly to kiss quickly Cora's cheek. "Not when my wife is such a funny and beautiful lady!"

"Now" he added, standing up and grabbing his dressing gown at the end of the bed. "Would my wife – my charming Countess - do me the honour of joining me for breakfast downstairs?"

Cora smiled looking at him, full of love and happiness in her heart.  
"I can't speak for the charming countess" she said standing up from the bed "but your Cora would be delighted!" she finished, hurrying to give Robert a small kiss before disappearing in the washroom.

That was about to be a beautiful morning. A beautiful morning indeed.


	3. Diet

Seven days had passed. Seven full days that had felt like seven full months. It was ten o'clock already and Robert couldn't find any rest.

He had called Bates an hour ago, excusing himself with the guests and with his family, claiming to have a bad head ache and to be in the need of an early night, but in all truth he had decided to leave everybody just because of his annoyance.

He had been abstaining from elaborated food and alcohol since a week, but he was already bored and deadly tired of it. Of course he had promised to be obedient to his wife and children, but the wise earl of Grantham hadn't considered how hard would have been to be on a diet during a party and to entertain his guests while everybody was drinking brandy and whisky in front of him.

He knew that Cora was simpathetic. She had smiled at him at dinner, avoiding to take her portion of chocolate souffle with raspberry sauce in order to make him feel less alone in his abstinence from sugar, but the only consequence of that was a surge of guilt in his heart.

Robert was now sitting on his side of the bed, trying to read a book but being really distracted by the rumbling of his stomach. How he longed for at least one of 's cinnamon cookie or for a crème caramel to eat with a drop of rum and water...

He put his book aside, considering for just a second to pop quickly downstairs to grab something sweet to chew in bed, but he dismissed the idea immediately.

The guests should be gone by now, but he couldn't risk to be found by them or by the staff sneaking for a late snack in his dressing gown. In addition to that Cora would be furious at him...

He was almost ready to give in when his eyes went on Cora's vanity table

Last week Robert went to Ripon to run some errands and when he found himself in front of Cora's favourite confectionery, he couldn't resist to buy her a nice box of chocolates filled with caramel and brandy.

She has hidden the gift in the drawer of her vanity table, promising that she would have waited Christmas' eve to open the box, in order to share the sweets with him.

It has been so lovely of her!

He knew he shouldn't have, but before he could think again he was already standing and looking for the chocolates. He took away the box from the drawer rapidly, running back to bed to open it and to unfold the paper, sinking in the shame of eating sweets in secret like a chubby school boy.

Robert had already eaten two sweets when he heard some noises from his dressing room.

He managed to hide everything under the sheets just in time for Cora to enter their room with a wide smile on her pretty face.

"Here is my sweetheart." she said coming towards the bed taking off her dressing gown.

Robert looked at her with wide eyes feeling both guilty for his behaviour and flabbergasted by her warm presence.

"Hi, darling." He answered quickly, pulling the box a little bit further down the mattress.

Cora climbed on the bed taking his hand in hers. "I missed you tonight. Are you feeling better? You looked a little bit glum at dinner." she said, resting her head on Robert's shoulder.

Robert tried to put some distance between them, so that she couldn't find out that he was hiding a box of chocolates under the duvet. "Glum? Not at all Cora. I am perfectly fine."

At this, Cora put her arms around her husband's neck. "Oh listen, listen...My darling Robert tonight pretended to be tired, just to sneak upstairs and to stay all alone" she said indulging in a slow kiss on his cheek. "Does it mean that he prefers spending time alone than with his caring wife?"

"Don't be silly. I am just a little tired." Robert replied, taking Cora's arms away from him. "Why don't we go to sleep, darling? I am wrecked out." he finished, moving to turn off the lamp.

Cora though stopped his arm, caressed his face to make him look at her and kissed his lips softly.

"How can I let you go to sleep without dessert, honey?" she said teasingly holding him tight.

With this Robert forgot everything about the chocolates and his cravings for sugar and got completely absorbed by Cora's sweet attentions.

He slid down, rolling on his back and taking Cora with him. She was running her hands on Robert's shoulders and arms when she suddenly touched some wrinkled paper between the sheets.

"What's that?" Cora asked, detaching from him.

"Oh crikey!" Robert exclaimed, closing his eyes.

Cora looked at her husband with furrowed brows and a perplexed expression. In a second she pulled the duvet away, revealing with a rapid movement all the melted chocolates and their golden wrappings.

"You terrible trickster! To think that I felt so sorry for you!" she cried in shock, throwing her pillow at Robert.

"Cora, dearest. I am sorry I just..." he tried, before being rapidly interrupted.

"You just promised me that you wouldn't have eaten sugar until Christmas, but you gave up your promise after a mere week to eat chocolates alone in bed." she said, collecting the sweets from the bed.

"Cora, I am sorry darling. But I have eaten just a couple of chocolates, What harm could they do? I am not a baby, for God's sake!" he replaid in exasperation.

Cora stood from the bed, rolling her eyes. "Oh really? You're not a baby, right? That's why you hid from me to eat chocolates?" she asked rethorically.

Robert rose from the bed, coming in front of Cora to hold her hands. "Come to bed darling, come on!"

Cora huffed, taking her hands away from Robert's grasp "Robert, how can you be so selfish?" she said seriously. "Do you want to get sick? Do you want to leave me Robert?" she murmured on the verge of tears. "Because you know that I couldn't cope...I could't cope if..."

His wife was crying. His lovely wife was crying at the mere idea of him leaving her. Robert caressed her face with extreme tenderness and hugged her tight. "I am sorry, Cora." He reassured, lightly. "I am so very sorry, my dearest darling. I'll be strict from now on, I promise."

Cora raised her face from Robert's neck. "Promise it again!" she begged, with animosity.

"I do promise, my love. I do." said again Robert, kissing Cora on the crown of her head.

They stayed like this for a while. Hugging each other in silence, swaying lightly and enjoying the sensation of being so close.

After a while Robert started laughing lightly.

"What is it?" Asked Cora, looking in his eyes.

"You know what? I was thinking that I can't give up entirely on sugar,when I am married with such a sweet woman like you." declared Robert, cradling Cora's face in both his hands.

Cora smiled looking up at him and hugging him tighter.

"Sweeter than chocolate?" She teased with a smile.

Robert kissed her lips, tasting their loveliness. "Without any doubt!" he asserted, lifting her up by her waist and taking her back to bed.


	4. To take care

Tom has been away for three days now. A business for the agent of the estate took him to the south of France to learn some more about new possible variety of corn that could be imported to be used at Downton. Mary should have gone with him, but she was seven months pregnant and Henry has done everything he could to keep her safely at home. She gave up at the end, but kept a bad mood for at least two days.

Robert and Cora have been very busy all the time. Edith and Bertie were out of England to attend an house party in the continent and have left little Marigold at Downton to spend some time with her grandparents and cousins, George was quite upset about the new sibling who was about to come and Sybbie has been found yesterday with a little bit of a temperature.

Cora has been the whole day between the drawing room and the nursery, managing the house, the hospital's business and keeping an eye on Sybbie, who felt very tired and feverish.

The poor little girl has been very sad because of her beloved daddy's absence; she was scared of being sick if she had to stay in the nursery all day long with just her nanny. If only daddy was at Downton with her she wouldn't have been so bored and worried.

Cora knew perfectly how she felt, since she had been very fussy as well, when as a little girl she had to stay all alone in her home in Newport while his dad was away for work and her mother was busy with dinner parties and nights at the theatre. Her sympathy made her be a little too overprotective towards her little granddaughter, so that she sneaked in the nursery every five minutes in order to bring Sybbie a cookie or a book or just to tuck her bedsheets in and to caress her forehead.

Robert, on the other side, was not as worried. He has seen the same thing plenty of time during the past thirty six years. He could recall so many occasions during his daughters' childhood when Cora had fought animatedly with his mother claiming her right to avoid a party or a dinner to take care herself of one of their children who was sick.

He loved this side of his wife, of course. He had always admired how natural and sweet she was as a mother and a grandmother, but today of all days he would have been happier if she would have had some time to remember of himself as well.

A whole year has passed since his recovery after the surgery for his ulcer and he and Cora have decided that they would have celebrated that day as a new special anniversary for their couple, because they have had another unexpected chance to enjoy their mutual love.

He had prepared a special evening for them, but with all her work around the house, he hadn't have not even a moment to share with his wife.

Robert was resting on the chaise longue, when Cora entered their room, all flustered, with two small glass jars in her hand.

She went towards him, without even looking at his face "Which honey is better to soothe the sorethroat? Eucaliptus or Chestnut?" she asked, staring at the jars with confusion.

He raised his eyes to meet hers "Have you been promoted to doctor, now, at the hospital?"

Cora rolled her eyes with irritation "Very funny, Robert. It's for Sybbie, she has such a bad cold that I feel as If she's worn out by coughing" she sighed, pouting slightly.

"Oh my darling, you are such a fussy! Sybbie is just a cheeky little girl who has caught a cold because she stayed all day long in the garden playing with the snow. There's nothing to worry about." he said laughing "Your husband, on the other side..."  
"My husband on the other side wants everybody at his mercy!" she stated, looking at him.

A true guffaw escaped from Robert. "Not everybody really. Just my beautiful wife." replied him, teasingly

Cora couldn't help but smiling, feeling loved and blessed by such a goofy and sweet man.

"Robert, darling, I am really busy now" she said, warningly.

Robert stood up from the chaise longue, taking the jars from Cora's hands and leaving a kiss on her soft cheek. "I'll take care of this. I'll go to darling Sybbie to give her milk with honey and to read her a story."

"But.." Cora tried to reply.

"No buts" interrupted him "Now you'll go downstairs to arrange tea and afterwards you'll come back upstairs to take a bath, to wear one of those beautiful dresses of yours and to spend a lovely evening out with your poor old husband."

Cora raised her eyebrows in astonishment "Poor and old? Sly and manipulating, I would say..."

Robert came closer to her, whispering softly in her ear. "See you tonight, honey."

Cora was now left alone in her bedroom, with a subtle air of confusion and a little goose bumps running all over her arms.

The afternoon went by as usual, teatime ran smoothly, with a very pregnant Mary complaining over the tangy taste of the lemon meringue pie and over the excessive sweetness of the strawberry jam in the Victoria sponge. Robert though hasn't show himself downstairs, too busy in the arrangement of the private room of the best restaurant in Ripon for his wife and himself. Later on he went to the barber to cut his hair, had ordered thirty one pink roses and a bottle of Cora's favourite champagne to drink during the car ride.

In the best mood ever, Robert went rapidly down the stairs, meeting Barrow in the wide hallway.

"Her ladyship and I are going out for dinner Barrow, we'll be late, so there's no need to keep Bates or Baxter up tonight. We'll do well without their services for the evening." he said formally.

"Very well, my lord." answered the butler, nodding and moving to the dining room.

Robert headed towards the library, to enjoy a last drink before dinner and stayed there, sitting on the couch, waiting for his Cora to join him.

The time passed very slowly, a mere minute felt like an hour. After almost 40 minutes of waiting, Robert decided to go upstairs to check on his wife.

He went to their bedroom, but he found it completely empty. It was very odd. It was almost eight o'clock and Cora should have been there, at her vanity, getting ready for dinner.

He knocked on the washroom's door, in case she was there, but no answer came from there either.

Starting to get impatient, Robert walked to the nursery and when he cautiously opened the door, he was overwhelmed by the most sweet vision in front of him.

At the warm light of a lamp, his three grandchildren were sleeping soundly under the heavy covers, just like three angels. On Sybbie's bed, though, he spotted Cora, in her beautiful and rich evening attire, sleeping with her arms around her granddaughter and her head rested on the small pillow.

She was so beautiful that he could have stayed there forever, just watching his loving wife, taking such good care of their little ones.

He gingerly patted towards the bed and when he was close he couldn't resist to leave a quick kiss on Cora's forehead.

He was surprised to feel her very warm and flustered. Could she have possibly got sick as well?

Very slowly Robert moved Sybbie, so that Cora's arms were free again and then, with a quick move, he took his wife in his arms to bring her back on her bed.

When Cora's body was posed on the soft duvet, she woke up with a gasp.

"Robert!" she exclaimed " Where am I?"

Robert sat next to her on the bed, smiling at her confused expression and feeling again the temperature of her forehead. "You're in our room, darling. You fell asleep in the nursery." he said plainly.

"Did I?" asked Cora, massaging her temples. In a moment she widened her eyes in apprehension

"We should have gone to dinner!"

Robert caressed her cheek "Yes, darling, whe should have."

"What time is it? Maybe we could.."cried Cora, trying to wake up, but feeling dizzy and falling again on the bed.

"Hush, my darling. Don't worry now. Just rest. I think Sybbie made you feverish as well."

Cora sunk in the pillow, closing her eyes. "Actually Robert, I am not feeling very well...I..."

Robert moved to lay next to her, holding her closer and peppering her face with small kisses.  
"Don't worry, now, my darling. Sleep."

Cora opened her eyes looking for his "Are you sure you're not disappointed? I remember what day it is Robert, we should have celebrated your recovery, but now I am sick and we can't."

Robert laughed, kissing Cora's cheek. "My dearest darling, your worst flaw is that you can't accept that sometimes it's you who needs to be looked after."

Cora looked at him with furrowed brows.

"Besides" added Robert "How can I be disappointed to find myself in bed with the most beautiful woman on earth?"

Cora laughed and rolled her eyes "You're such a liar"

Robert put his forehead against hers. "No way. I am not. You're lovely. Lovely as a granny, as a mother, as a wife, as a..." with this he indulged in a passionate kiss, becoming incapable of saying anything sensible.

She kissed him back caressing his cheek. When they broke apart Cora looked adoringly into his blue eyes "I don't mind when you take care of me, you know?" she said softly.

Robert smiled holding her close. "That's good. Because there isn't anything I like doing more".


End file.
